floor advice

[mikeyd859]

Hi guys,
i layed a floor for a customer the other week all solid. plyed, primed and completed.
the next day i got a call off her saying between every tile the grout had cracked. she said that she had not walked on it until she went into give it a good clean the next day like i said. when i had completed the job i told them that the house was very hot and may need the heat turning down, not sure if they did this or not but i put the cracking down to the fat that the grout had dried too quick. went back regrouted using bal grout and also a bit of gt1 to help. i also cracked a couple of windows on the vent clip and told them to leave them overnight.
she has now rang me saying that it has cracked again but not as much, i have a feeling that the adhesive has dried too fast too now making the tiles loose.
Does anyone have any other ideas as i havent had this happen to me before and i need to be accurate with my comeback to her as i dont want her to kill me reputation
cheers

 

[Andy Allen]

What adhesive and grout did you use?
How thick was the ply.
Did you lay tiles stright onto the ply.

 

[mikeyd859]

What adhesive and grout did you use?
How thick was the ply.
Did you lay tiles stright onto the ply.

its was the topps flexi rapid set and the customer supplied mapei flexi grout
12mm ply but the floor underneath was solid screwed down at 25mm centers
and straight onto the primed ply
i have been doing it this way for years and never had any comebacks
is it possible the adhesive had dried to quiclk

 

[Andy Allen]

I Doubt its to do with the adhesive drying to fast.
Sounds more like a deflection issue to me but hard to tell without seeing it....any photos. ?

 

[Dave]

Floating floor ?

 

[Just Rizzle]

did you aclimatise the ply in the house befor laying ?

 

[mikeyd859]

did you aclimatise the ply in the house befor laying ?

yes ply had been in the house for i think the customer said 2 days.
i just find it weird that the grout has cracked without anyone even walking on it. or so they say.
i have never had any problems before thats why its so confusing.
no not got any photos im afraid.

 

[Just Rizzle]

12 mm ply just 2 days in this time of year in a very warm house.
i use ply when fixing karndean my rule of thumb is 2mm per day so min period would be 6 days.
sounds like the floor ply may still be contracting. why in this day and age are you still using ply, i havent used ply for fixing ceramics for over 12 yrs now . suggest you read up on other methods of fixing on wooden floors. try looking at schulters technical web site about decoupling much better way to fix.or the use of cement based boards.

 

[stusgsx]

Bad news for u... Top fix rapid is not recommended on ply. It doesn't stick at all even topps will admit that

 

[mma]

I had a problem once where the plumbers who I did the job for put ply down. Toppfix was used and the adhesive stuck to the back of the tiles but not the ply. Not used it since and avoid other Palace stuff too!

 

[White Room]

I thought Topfix was a flexi addy...

 

[judge]

ive had the same prob with topps flexi and ply

 

[CJ]

It should be ok on 15mm ply......or so the spec sheet recommends.

 

[mma]

Just had a look on Topps website, £30.99 per bag??? Suitable over 15mm ply.

 

[stusgsx]

I get it for £12.50. Spec says ok for ply but it just doesn't take to it. Even a tiny bit of boxing I tiled they just came away before I even grouted. Never again

 

[mikeyd859]

ohh dear looks like i have a retile on my hands then ha.
i have always used the topps rapid flexi and never had any problems before, ahh well ill be changing to using the hardiebackers now.
im sure it says on the bag suitable for ply, surely that is fals advertisement or something like that

 

[White Room]

I'm sure I've used Topps addy on ply with no problem...long time ago though.

 

[Andy Allen]

ohh dear looks like i have a retile on my hands then ha.
i have always used the topps rapid flexi and never had any problems before, ahh well ill be changing to using the hardiebackers now.
im sure it says on the bag suitable for ply, surely that is fals advertisement or something like that

If they say 15 mm ply and you used 12 mm ply then that would be there get out clause..